iTunes Breaks During The Voice, But It Doesn't Matter Anymore

The latest twist in the ongoing strange relationship between iTunes and The Voice? A bug on iTunes made it harder for fans to instantly buying the tracks from their favourites. But it doesn't really matter, partly because voting runs for a whole week but mostly because iTunes sales of contestant tracks are slipping.

"We're hearing there is a bit of a technical issue on iTunes tonight," host Darren McMullen said as the Monday night episode concluded. "You'll need to search by name . . . I'm sure they'll sort it out eventually." I'm sure they will; when I checked, individual track promos on the show's iTunes splash page were indeed missing, but you could still easily buy studio recordings from each of the eight performers by searching their names or grabbing them from that bundle.

I'm not sure how many people will care. Just two contestants scored new hits on the ARIA charts this week: Karise Eden at #14 and Fatai V at #25. The compilation of tracks from the Final 24 also failed to impress on the album chart, only hitting #26. Last week, six new competitor tunes made the charts (four of those stuck around, mostly in the lower reaches, though Brittany Cairns only ranked one spot below Karise).

Overall, it was hardly a chart landslide. It looks like The Voice is following the same pattern here as overseas, with declining interest each week (something also evident in its ratings, which remain impressive but are notably lower than they were in the blind audition rounds).

We've said all along that if you want to vote, doing so via Facebook for free is the best option. Sounds like that's proving to be more popular advice with each passing week.